The GOP has an edge over the Democrats for retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s seat, but none of the candidates has a favorable rating from voters, according to a poll conducted by the Public Policy Polling organization.

The poll of 700 Texan voters pitted each of the four leading Republican candidates against two of the Democratic hopefuls. In every matchup, the GOP candidate came out on top by at least 8 percent. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst had the highest differential in his matchups, leading former state Rep. Paul Sadler 49-31 and Sean Hubbard 48-31.

Former Solicitor General Ted Cruz won both of his matchups by 10 percent and former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert notched a victory of 44-31 over Sadler and 43-32 over Hubbard.

However, all six candidates tested had an unfavorable rating with the voters, including GOP front-runner Dewhurst with 29 percent favorable and 31 percent unfavorable. ESPN analyst Craig James had the largest discrepancy in favorability, with nine percent holding a positive opinion of him and 24 percent with an unfavorable view. James also finished the worst out of the GOP in head-to-head matchups with the Democrats, with an 8 percent win over Hubbard and 10 percent above Sadler.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (AP photo)

Dewhurst was the only candidate to finish the poll with more than 50 percent of the voters holding an opinion of him, favorable or not. Both the Democrat candidates were unknown by 75 percent of pollsters. Leppert, James and Cruz were unknown by 63, 67 and 69 percent, respectively.

The results of the Public Policy Polling survey confirm many pundits’ predictions that the Republicans will hold onto the seat.

“Republicans are strongly favored to hold onto Kay Bailey Hutchison’s Senate seat,” said
Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “At this point it looks like the chances
of Barack Obama winning Texas are a lot better than the chances of Democrats picking
up a Senate seat there.”

In another poll by the same organization that surveyed 559 Texas GOP primary voters, Dewhurst led the pack of Republicans with 31 percent of the support. The only other candidate to finish above single digits was Cruz.

The two polls suggest the race for the open seat is heating up, with many undecided voters to be claimed.

Both polls were conducted over the weekend and started the day of the GOP’s first major debate.